What Happened in 1955 — Events, Births & Deaths

Following the assassination of the Panamanian president José Antonio Remón Cantera, his deputy, José Ramón Guizado, takes power, but is quickly deposed after his involvement in Cantera's death is discovered.

Contralto Marian Anderson becomes the first person of color to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in Giuseppe Verdi's Un ballo in maschera.

A Martin 2-0-2 and Douglas DC-3 collide over Boone County, Kentucky, killing 15 people.

Israel obtains four of the seven Dead Sea Scrolls.

Twenty-nine people are killed when Sabena Flight 503 crashes into Monte Terminillo near Rieti, Italy.

Operation Teapot: Teapot test shot "Wasp" is successfully detonated at the Nevada Test Site with a yield of 1.2 kilotons. Wasp is the first of fourteen shots in the Teapot series.

Norodom Sihanouk, king of Cambodia, abdicates the throne in favor of his father, Norodom Suramarit.

An order to protect the endangered Saimaa ringed seal (Pusa hispida saimensis) is legalized.

A United States Navy Douglas R6D-1 Liftmaster crashes into Hawaii's Waiʻanae Range, killing 66.

Pan Am Flight 845/26 ditches in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Oregon, killing four.

The EOKA rebellion against the British Empire begins in Cyprus, with the goal of unifying with Greece.

The American Civil Liberties Union announces it will defend Allen Ginsberg's book Howl against obscenity charges.

The Air India Kashmir Princess is bombed and crashes in a failed assassination attempt on Zhou Enlai by the Kuomintang.

The polio vaccine, developed by Dr. Jonas Salk, is declared safe and effective.

McDonald's restaurant dates its founding to the opening of a franchised restaurant by Ray Kroc, in Des Plaines, Illinois.

Twenty-nine nations meet at Bandung, Indonesia, for the first Asian-African Conference.

The Bandung Conference ends: Twenty-nine non-aligned nations of Asia and Africa finish a meeting that condemns colonialism, racism, and the Cold War.

The General Treaty, by which France, Britain and the United States recognize the sovereignty of West Germany, comes into effect.

Cold War: West Germany joins NATO.

Cold War: Eight Communist bloc countries, including the Soviet Union, sign a mutual defense treaty called the Warsaw Pact.

Operation Passage to Freedom, the evacuation of 310,000 Vietnamese civilians, soldiers and non-Vietnamese members of the French Army from communist North Vietnam to South Vietnam following the end of the First Indochina War, ends.

In the United States, a night-time F5 tornado strikes the small city of Udall, Kansas as part of a larger outbreak across the Great Plains, killing 80 and injuring 273. It is the deadliest tornado ever to occur in the state and the 23rd deadliest in the U.S.

First ascent of Mount Kangchenjunga: On the British Kangchenjunga expedition led by Charles Evans, Joe Brown and George Band reach the summit of the third-highest mountain in the world (8,586 meters); Norman Hardie and Tony Streather join them the following day.

The U.S. Supreme Court expands on its Brown v. Board of Education decision by ordering district courts and school districts to enforce educational desegregation "at all deliberate speed."

The USSR and Yugoslavia sign the Belgrade declaration and thus normalize relations between the two countries, discontinued since 1948.

Lux Radio Theatre signs off the air permanently. The show launched in New York in 1934, and featured radio adaptations of Broadway shows and popular films.

Eighty-three spectators are killed and at least one hundred are injured after an Austin-Healey and a Mercedes-Benz collide at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the deadliest ever accident in motorsports.

Chile becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.

In a futile effort to topple Argentine President Juan Perón, rogue aircraft pilots of the Argentine Navy drop several bombs upon an unarmed crowd demonstrating in favor of Perón in Buenos Aires, killing 364 and injuring at least 800. At the same time on the ground, some soldiers attempt to stage a coup but are suppressed by loyal forces.

The South African Congress Alliance adopts the Freedom Charter at the Congress of the People in Kliptown.

The Russell–Einstein Manifesto calls for a reduction of the risk of nuclear warfare.

Eighteen Nobel laureates sign the Mainau Declaration against nuclear weapons, later co-signed by thirty-four others.

The Austrian State Treaty restores Austrian sovereignty.

El Al Flight 402 is shot down by two fighter jets after straying into Bulgarian air space. All 58 people on board are killed.

Hurricane Diane makes landfall near Wilmington, North Carolina; it went on to cause major floods and kill more than 184 people.

In the Northeast United States, severe flooding caused by Hurricane Diane, claims 200 lives.

Battle of Philippeville: In Algeria, a force of Berbers from the Atlas Mountains region of Algeria raid two rural settlements and kill 77 French nationals.

The first edition of the Guinness Book of Records is published in Great Britain.

Black teenager Emmett Till is lynched in Mississippi for whistling at a white woman, galvanizing the nascent civil rights movement.

Istanbul's Greek, Jewish, and Armenian minorities are the target of a government-sponsored pogrom; dozens are killed in ensuing riots.

The military coup to unseat President Juan Perón of Argentina is launched at midnight.

A Soviet Zulu-class submarine becomes the first to launch a ballistic missile.

The Treaty on Relations between the USSR and the GDR is signed.

An all-white jury in Mississippi finds Roy Bryant and J. W. Milam not guilty in the torture-murder of 14-year-old African American boy Emmett Till.

The Royal Jordanian Air Force is founded.

The General Assembly of the European Broadcasting Union approves the staging of the first Eurovision Song Contest.

Prime Minister Ngô Đình Diệm defeats former emperor Bảo Đại in a referendum and founds the Republic of Vietnam.

The people of the Saar region vote in a referendum to unite with West Germany instead of France.

After the last Allied troops have left the country, and following the provisions of the Austrian Independence Treaty, Austria declares that it will never join a military alliance.

Ngô Đình Diệm proclaims himself as President of the newly created Republic of Vietnam.

The Soviet battleship Novorossiysk sinks after probably striking a World War II mine in the harbor at Sevastopol, with a loss of more than 600 sailors.

The establishment of a Military Assistance Advisory Group in South Vietnam marks the beginning of American involvement in the conflict.

The bombing of United Air Lines Flight 629 occurs near Longmont, Colorado, killing all 39 passengers and five crew members aboard the Douglas DC-6B airliner.

After being destroyed in World War II, the rebuilt Vienna State Opera reopens with a performance of Beethoven's Fidelio.

The first part of the Saint Petersburg Metro is opened.

National Review publishes its first issue.

The Soviet Union launches RDS-37, a 1.6 megaton two stage hydrogen bomb designed by Andrei Sakharov. The bomb was dropped over Semipalatinsk.

The Cocos Islands are transferred from the control of the United Kingdom to that of Australia.

American Civil Rights Movement: In Montgomery, Alabama, seamstress Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat to a white man and is arrested for violating the city's racial segregation laws, an incident which leads to that city's bus boycott.

The American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merge and form the AFL–CIO.

The Civil Rights Movement: the Montgomery bus boycott begins, led by E. D. Nixon and Rosa Parks.

The Flag of Europe is adopted by Council of Europe.

Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Ceylon, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Laos, Libya, Nepal, Portugal, Romania and Spain join the United Nations through United Nations Security Council Resolution 109.

Cardiff is proclaimed the capital city of Wales, United Kingdom.

The first film adaptation of Väinö Linna's novel The Unknown Soldier, directed by Edvin Laine, premieres.

A flood devastates California, killing 74 people across portions of the state.

General Motors becomes the first U.S. corporation to make over US$1 billion in a year.

Albert Einstein, German-American physicist, engineer, and academic (born 1879)

Max Meldrum, Scottish-Australian painter and educator (born 1875)